Women in Entertainment Power 100

Never Miss A Story.

Daily Edition

obituaries

Empty

Linda Stein, a former manager of the Ramones who later became known as "the Realtor for the stars," was found dead Oct. 30 in her Manhattan apartment, the victim of a homicide. She was 62.

Stein, a former schoolteacher, co-managed the Ramones with Danny Fields during the band's heyday. She had been married to Seymour Stein, then president of Sire Records. It was the Sire label that released records that vaulted the Ramones and such acts as Talking Heads and Madonna to fame in the 1970s and '80s.

Stein and Fields left the Ramones in 1980, and Stein began a second career in Manhattan residential real estate. Her client list included Madonna, Sting, Michael Douglas and Angelina Jolie.

Mark Steverson, an entertainment attorney who became an entrepreneur, died Oct. 22 in New York of complications from an intestinal transplant. He was 50.

Steverson specialized in international branding and merchandising in the music and film businesses. He was with the law firm of Rudolph & Beer in New York for several years, when his clients, including Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and the bands 98° and 'N Sync, were beginning their careers.

Gregory Biller, co-founder and chairman of the board of Compact Video Systems and founder of Spectra Systems and Laser Edit, died Oct. 23 in his Los Angeles home after battling kidney disease for more than a year. He was 77.

In addition to winning Emmys for technical achievement, Biller's companies helped revolutionize the modern postproduction industry. Compact Video was responsible for the design, construction and installation of ESPN's studio and mobile trucks.

Bill Gross, a 25-year veteran of the entertainment industry, died Oct. 21 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 50.

Gross was the co-founder and CEO of Brandissimo, a family entertainment content and branding company.

He was responsible for the development of several award-winning animated children's TV series, including the international hit series "Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs," the Emmy-nominated "Meteor and the Mighty Monster Trucks" and the upcoming "Flockhearts."

In the mid-1990s, Gross joined Disney as a senior production executive after serving as a vp at WMA and the owner of an artists management company. He oversaw the production, marketing and distribution of hundreds of hours of children's TV programming, including the animated series "Doug," "PB&J Otter" and "Stanley."

George Rutter, a script supervisor who worked on the original "Star Trek" and a former business agent for Script Supervisors Local 871, died Nov. 4 of an ongoing infection at St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank. He was 91.

Rutter worked in the 1950s for Gene Autry's Flying-A Prods., carrying script on "Annie Oakley" and the Buffalo Bill Jr. TV shows. His series credits included "Fury," "The Roy Rogers Show" and "Lassie."

In the '60s, he worked on "Star Trek" and with Audie Murphy, George Montgomery, Cameron Mitchell and Sterling Hayden on a number of Westerns.

A funeral service will be held today in Tulare, Calif., for Sergio Lopez, a veteran telecine assistant and videotape operator in Hollywood who died Oct. 25 in a traffic crash in Chatsworth, Calif. He was 43.

He had been an employee of Technicolor's Complete Post division in Hollywood since 2001. He also had worked for several video postproduction companies and networks, including Image Transform, NBC, Modern Videofilm and Hollywood Digital.